Lambchop is a band that is full of contrasts, of subtle nuances that you’re never sure you have completely grasped. It’s a band that mixes wildly different ingredients: the flavors blend nonetheless, until it becomes almost impossible to separate them again. Here are two things you’ll find in all of their discography: a pinch of humor and a good swig of levity.

Because they spend so much time speaking in hushed tones of twilight ambiences, it’s easy to forget that the men of Lambchop, and Kurt Wagner the leader, are, much more often than it seems, pouring on the sarcasm. And, yes, in this Take Away Show, you’ll see them laugh. Not roaring laughter—but soft, like laughter between old friends that find comfort in their complicity. You’ll see him hang the lyrics of their song on the back of a friend, who gets transformed into a man/sandwich-board hybrid. There’s a sense of mischief with these guys.

As you hear them repeatedly unfold their dark, plodding folk with its slow-motion tempo, you forget that the men of Lambchop are usually specialists in levity. Each of their notes is retained as long as it can be, and each falls to the floor like autumn leaves that let go of the tree when their moment has finally come. However, this isn’t a Mark Hollis- style retention: it’s not a painful holding-on. It’s more a languid method, nearly carefree in its slowness, forged from an outdated sensibility of taking one’s time. (Copyright KMS on this idea.)

And now, in these videos, you’ll hear the bittersweet lyrics, sarcastic and not terribly optimistic, of “National Talk Like a Pirate Day.” You’ll hear the guitars stack over each other, turning one over the other, and finally taking flight. It’s a sweet take-off, calm and serene, a tiny crystalline tornado that sweeps up only some dust and a few leaves.

You’ll hear the deceptively adolescent tune (if teenagers could be capable of weightlessness) of “I believe in you”, and its way of taking hold, slowly, very slowly. Like building a house of cards, somewhat. Watch the city around them, too: the musicians are hidden in an unpopulated alleyway, and the little street doesn’t seem to realize what’s happening until the last minute, until everything is almost done. Hidden in the middle is the band’s final promise, their credo that almost nobody hears: “I believe in music.”

And then you’ll hear Kurt Wagner’s voice. If Antony is the voice of the new age, then he — this old, greying patriarch surrounded by young musicians who, it seems, could almost be his kids—is the voice of yesteryear.

We don’t go into la Closerie des Lilas. We pass by the front, we see some rich and paunchy people on the terrace meticulously protected by a wall of greenery, we smell the perfume of the oysters, but we don’t go in. Someday, we’ll have the occasion to go in—a family reunion organized by a wealthy old aunt, maybe. Or we’ll be invited to talk logistics of a festival, and spend the entire afternoon on the covered terrace. This was the case for Moon, who had just gotten back from Tanzania, and found himself wedged there, at la Closerie. He would go in, for the first time, to film the Icelanders.

For me, the equation is as follows: the band is staying at the Kube hotel, north of Paris; their equipment is at porte de la Villette; Moon and his camera are wedged at la Closerie, in the south of Paris; and, obviously, Sigur Ros are playing at Zénith this very evening. We only have a little time.

The first person passed by, and this guy will leave us with the best memories— he’s John Best, their manager. A 50-something English man in all his splendor, ‘70s glasses, classic raincoat, beige scarf and classy mustache. He makes us forget about the long saga of the sick bassist, about the rest of the band who’re fading fast.

We bought a bucket at a bazaar in a side-street, and we decided not to bother pulling out the costumes. We moved some tables to set up a splendid harmonium, we took over the piano, and everything seemed ready… the only thing missing was two drummer’s brushes, which weren’t in the van. Some guy had to go back to Villette to look for them.

While we wait, we ask the group in vain to play a few other songs in the mean time—any song that doesn’t need the brushes. They decline.As John reminds us, they’ve never done anything like this before—they usually don’t perform acoustic. We just have to wait, and not add to the looming pressure of tonight’s huge concert.

Still waiting, we rummage around la Closerie. We chat with elegant old couples, we watch from afar as a fat businessman absentmindedly strokes the hair of a girl 20 years his junior, and we let ourselves be cradled by the incessant waltz of guys in vests running and pivoting with their plates filled to the brim.

Little by little the room empties, the remaining diners drag out the final moments of their lunch, and then the drumsticks arrive. The environment is tense, but they jump in. A few notes on the harmonium, and an incredible voice that it would have been a shame to exhaust. We don’t know if the sticks were essential. But in three minutes, our patience was repaid.

One of the more distinctive music genres from the 80s was hair metal. Musicians had long hair since the 60s, but those hard rockers in the 80s just took it that little bit too far…

There is some argument about who fits in this genre, and while KISS, Van Halen and Areosmith were the model that half these bands were based, they were certainly around long before this particular scene.

Also, there is no metal in Bon Jovi and while Guns N Roses are another band that are roped in to the lot, I believe their music shows little resemblance to the following bands…

HAIR METAL BANDS

Mötley CrüeProbably the first true hair band and the model that countless bands looked to in the years to come. They’ve showed amazing endurance and still manage to top the charts in this day and age.

Check out: Shout at the Devil is one of the best rock records ever made.

RattThey followed shortly behind the success of The Crue and wore their Van Halen and Judas Priest musical influences on their sleeves.

Check out: Their only big single Round and Round and the underrated Nobody Rides for Free.

PoisonOpen Up and Say…Ahh! was the first album I ever bought and I broke my collar bone two days before I was supposed to go to their concert….however, I did meet guitarist C.C. DeVille in a memorable interview once and many regard them as the seminal hair metal outfit and Every Rose has its Thorn as the proto-power ballad.

Check out: Every Rose and their 3rd and darker album Flesh & Blood.

WhitesnakeEnglish hair metal at its best. Dave Coverdale always liked to get more romantic than his American counterparts and he’s still going strong today.

Check out: Still of the Night live DVD

Def LeppardTheir Hysteria album sold more than any other band on this list and they made themselves a household name for at least a while – their drummer lost an arm and their guitarist died and they slowly went downhill.

Check out: Their hard-rocking peak Pyromania.

Skid RowThey just scraped in with a couple of albums before grunge crushed the whole scene. I have a cool photo of me and Sebastian Bach on stage together and we’re also using one of his songs at our wedding…

Check out: Self-titled debut.

L.A. GunsThe off-shoot that started Guns N Roses, this band lays somewhere in between. Underrated and underplayed.

Check out: Over the Edge single and their latest album Tales from the Strip.

WarrantAnother band that scraped in at the tail end, they will always be remembered for their cheesy anthem Cherry Pie, but are well known in the industry as brilliant song smiths.

Check out: Inspired singles Uncle Tom’s Cabin and I Saw Red.

VixenHard-rocking hair metal girls at their best. I interviewed band founder Jan Kuehnemund of the all-girl band a year or two ago and she was all class.

Check out: Their self-titled debut

ScorpionsGermany’s hair metal heroes. These guys have been around forever, and they just keep on going.

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Bruce Springsteen’s regular E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg will be replaced by his son in a string of European shows this summer, so his dad can concentrate on his TV career.

Weinberg’s band The Max Weinberg Seven will take over as the house band on America’s Tonight Show in June – and the group’s first TV appearances in Los Angeles coincide with Springsteen’s shows in Europe.

So the respected drummer has offered up his talented 19-year-old son, Jay, as his E Street Band replacement.

In a statement, Springsteen jokes, “We promise to return him (Jay Weinberg) in one piece.”

Max Weinberg joined the E Street Band in 1974 and hasn’t missed a single show since. His son, who drums for heavy metal band The Reveling, has reportedly been rehearsing with the E Street Band in New Jersey for the past week.

E Street Band guitarist Steve Van Zandt recently told Rolling Stone magazine he couldn’t imagine touring without Max Weinberg: “It’s hard for me to picture a show without Max, honestly … There’s no drummer that could replace Max. There might be someone temporary that comes in and we’ll have to adjust the show accordingly.

“What nobody understands is that not only is Max a great drummer, Max reads Bruce’s mind. You can’t learn that. That’s impossible to learn. You could spend months rehearsing and you’ll never get that.”

Jay Weinberg becomes the latest rock offspring to replace his father in current classic rock line-ups – Rick Wakeman’s son Adam has taken over keyboard duties in Yes and Jurgen Blackmore has taken his father Ritchie’s place in the reunited Rainbow line-up. Meanwhile, Eddie Van Halen’s teenage son Wolfgang has signed on as Van Halen’s permanent bass player.

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